


morning glory

by cheinsaw



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Child Neglect, Dragons, Flower Crowns, Gen, shamelessly fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 08:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2614481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheinsaw/pseuds/cheinsaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After discovering that Remilia has been keeping Flandre locked up in the basement with no visitors, Meiling's parenting instincts kick in, and she decides to go on a quest to meet her mistress's younger sister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	morning glory

"Your what?" Meiling asks, not sure she heard correctly.

Remilia sighs and repeats herself. "My younger sister. What, did you not know I had one?"

"No, ojousama, I – I had no idea."

"She's very dangerous," Remilia continues. "I've lost many maids to her."

"Dangerous how?"

Remilia's gaze flicks up from her teacup to Meiling's face. "You're getting hopeful. Don't. She is a lost cause." She sips her tea, not breaking eye contact. "I've had to keep her locked up, or she could very well destroy all of Gensokyo without even knowing what she was doing."

"That's…" Meiling wrings her hands. "I understand, but… your own sister?"

Remilia's stare is as emotionless and cold as if she were discussing the weather. "It's what had to be done."

* * *

It takes a little bit of careful asking around the legions of fairy maids, but Meiling eventually figures out where Remilia's little sister is sequestered: in the basement, in a level underneath the mansion's wine cellar, accessible only through a locked door in an underused side hall. That wouldn't be any problem for Meiling, as she could just break down the door, but doing things without Remilia's knowledge requires a certain level of finesse. It's early one morning when she finds the basement key hidden in a drawer in the kitchen, close to where she knows Sakuya prepares Remilia's food and tea. It's marked with what looks like a name in katakana, which tips her off, but it's been smudged so much that it's completely illegible.

Meiling makes herself a cup of tea and decides to concoct a plan.

The next morning, before the sun has risen, Meiling steals the key and moves as quietly as she can down to the hall where the basement door is. She's constantly looking over her shoulder, despite knowing that all the fairy maids are probably going to sleep and Sakuya won't come down to this end of the mansion, but she's still nervous, scared of being caught.

The key fits in the lock perfectly, and clicks open soundlessly. Meiling has to duck inside, as usual – the mansion was not designed for people of her tall stature, and this door is no different. It's a long way down, a few flights of spiraling stone steps, but eventually she lands in a dimly lit room filled with toys, broken doll pieces, and a tiny girl sitting in the very middle of the floor.

"Ah," Meiling says, without meaning to. The girl is a little taller than Remilia, with unwashed blonde hair hanging limply at her shoulders and a wrinkled red dress. Most strikingly, though, is her set of metal and crystal wings, sprouting unnaturally and yet so beautifully from her back.

The girl looks back over her shoulder, fixing her blood red eyes on Meiling. Remilia's eyes. "Who are you?" she says.

Meiling straightens herself out, the same way she does when reporting to Remilia. "Hong Meiling. I'm the gatekeeper, guard, and gardener here."

"Oh." The girl looks disinterested, and turns back around. "Did… my sister send you?" she asks quietly, her voice flat.

"No, no, I came here on my own."

"But you work for her."

"Yeah, I do. She saved my life once, so I guess the least I can do in return is guard."

The girl's arms tense up, and Meiling hears something small and glassy break in front of her. "I hate her."

"Well, um," Meiling says. "She doesn't know I'm here. She'd probably be angry if she found out, but I really wanted to meet you."

The girl turns around again. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Meiling smiles, and kneels down so she's at the girl's level. "What's your name?"

"Flandre."

"It's nice to meet you, Flandre-sama–"

"No!" Flandre hisses. "Flandre. My name is _Flandre_."

"Should I just call you Flandre, then…?"

"Yes!" Flandre pouts, like it's the most obvious thing ever.

"Okay. Flandre. What do you usually like to do?"

Flandre looks up at the ceiling, as if she's searching for answers. "Break stuff?"

"Are you going to break me?" As it comes out of her mouth, Meiling realizes saying something like that was probably a bad idea, seeing as the far wall is spattered with what looks like old, dried blood, and the floor is littered with broken things.

Flandre is very, very quiet. "I don't know."

Oh. "You can't help it, huh…"

"My sister doesn't send people down anymore. She used to, but…"

"Hey," Meiling says. "Hey. I'm really strong, you won't hurt me."

Flandre sticks out her bottom lip. "How strong?"

"This is a secret, so don't tell anyone, okay?" Flandre nods, and Meiling leans in close to whisper, "I'm actually a dragon."

"A what?"

"A dragon. This body is smaller and kinda more human-shaped so I can actually do things around here, but my real form is… I'm really big, and I have scales that sparkle in the sun, and I can fly really high and really fast." Meiling closes her eyes, remembering the last time she was able to fly freely in her true form. "And in my home country I'm considered lucky!"

"I wanna see!" Flandre says suddenly, leaning close to Meiling, nearly falling into her lap.

"We'd have to go outside," Meiling says. "I'm too big to fit in the mansion as a dragon."

Flandre's face suddenly falls. "I'm not allowed outside."

"Your sister again, huh… You know what? I don't care. I'll take you outside."

"You'll get in trouble."

"I said I don't care." Meiling grins. "Come on, you deserve it." She knows this is a bad idea, from the standpoint of her job and the room and board that come with it, but she can't help it when it comes to children. And though Flandre may not be a child in terms of age, she certainly looks and acts like one. Meiling's sold. "I have to start working soon, so why don't I give you a bath first and then we can go out together to the garden?"

* * *

The whole mansion is asleep by the time Meiling gets to the top of the spiral stairs and back into the main hallway, Flandre in tow. "Be really quiet," she whispers. "Everybody's sleeping now."

"Even the maids?"

"Especially the maids." Remilia, long ago, had made her entire staff run on the same nocturnal sleep cycle that she did, save for Meiling, who was allowed to remain awake during the day in order to properly guard against any intruders. The only other people who are likely to be awake at this hour are Patchouli, who never leaves her library, and Sakuya, who most likely is attending to things in Remilia's quarters before heading off to bed herself.

Meiling takes Flandre down to the servants' quarters, in a far corner of the mansion, and leads her into the bathroom. "Here," she says. "I'll run the water for you, and I'll get you some clean clothes. I think we have some dresses your size… uh, somewhere. Don't worry about it."

"I can't go near running water," Flandre says, pouting again.

"You don't have the water running constantly," Meiling says. "You just fill up the bathtub and then sit in it. It's not like being in the rain or anything. It's safe for you as long as the water isn't running."

Flandre makes a tiny groaning noise. "Fine," she says. "Can you take my clothes?"

"Oh, you can just–" Meiling stops. She'd been about to tell Flandre to just throw them in the pile of laundry for Sakuya to clean, but Flandre's red dress would definitely stick out among the blue and white of the maid uniforms. "Yeah, I'll take them."

While the water is running, Meiling darts off to her own room, Flandre's dress balled up in her hand. She really, really hopes she doesn't run into anyone, because she isn't the best at quickly explaining herself, especially when she's doing something she probably shouldn't be doing. It got her into trouble quite a lot before she came to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and still does, but less frequently. Fortunately, she makes it to her room with no interruptions, and hides Flandre's dress behind her bed. Hopefully today is not the day Sakuya decides to clean out the servants' rooms with no warning.

She has to dig through her drawers to find it, but she breathes a happy sigh of relief when she sees it's still there: one of Sakuya's dresses from when she was very, very small, before she began working full time. It should just about fit Flandre, Meiling thinks, and there's no better place for it to go than to her.

"Flandre?" she calls, knocking gently on the bathroom door when she comes back. "It's me. I brought you a dress." She hears a splash from inside. "Can I come in?"

There's a pause. "Yeah."

When Meiling opens the door, the entire floor is soaked in water, and Flandre is sitting in the tub, facing the wall and hugging her knees, with her hat still on. "Oh, Flandre, that's… not really how you do it," she laughs. "You got water everywhere."

"It just kinda happened," Flandre mumbles. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Flandre actually… feels bad about it.

"Hey, it's okay. These things are fixable. Don't worry, okay?" Meiling grabs a towel and mops up some of the water so she can sit comfortably on the floor. "Mind if I wash your hair?"

"Yeah."

Meiling massages shampoo gently into Flandre's scalp, the way she used to do for Sakuya all those years ago. It kind of makes her nostalgic, if she's being completely honest. Sakuya was the first child she ever really cared for, and the one who made her realize her unrelenting love for kids, human or youkai. As she works the shampoo down to the ends of Flandre's hair, she thinks, _It's really no different._

"Can I rinse this for you?" she asks.

"Mmhm," Flandre nods, moving her hands under the water, gliding them in circular patterns.

"Okay, uh, I can't pour water over your head, I'm guessing? So I'm gonna need you to put your head under for a sec. I'll get the shampoo out, you just need to hold your breath."

Flandre dutifully ducks her head under the water, and Meiling runs her fingers through her hair, watching as a cloud of soap rises up out of it to settle on the water's surface. Flandre's hair is starting to feel a lot softer and healthier already, after being washed.

"Okay, up," Meiling says once she's done. "Let's get you dried off and dressed and then we can go outside."

"Okay!" Flandre says, splashing water everywhere once again. Meiling can't help but smile at her enthusiasm.

The dress fits perfectly. It's almost like looking at a smaller, blonde, nonhuman Sakuya. Which isn't all that similar, but Meiling finds the sight too cute to care. Once she's dried off Flandre's hair, she says, "Okay, are you ready?" Flandre nods. "Good!"

Meiling walks hand in hand with Flandre through the quiet halls of the mansion, until they stand before the great front door. Meiling, with her dragon strength, pushes it open as easily as she does every morning, the first rays of sunlight greeting her.

Or not. "Kinda cloudy today," she remarks.

"Yeah," Flandre says. "Better than being sunny." She starts to take the first step outside, then turns around as if asking for Meiling's permission.

"Go ahead," Meiling says, smiling encouragingly.

Flandre runs, skips through the gardens, letting out loud yells of excitement. "Meiling! Look at this!" she hollers, pointing to a bush of large red flowers.

"I know! I take care of them every day. Aren't they pretty?"

"I love it," Flandre says, breathless, touching one of the flowers' petals. "It's like me."

"How about I let you wear some?"

"Can you?"

"Yeah! Of course. I can make you a crown."

Flandre squeals. "Okay, I want these ones!"

Meiling starts to point out that what Flandre is gesturing towards are dandelions, weeds, that she was planning on uprooting once she got the chance, but decides against it. If they're what Flandre wants then they're what Flandre can have. "They're all yours. Sit down and I'll do it, okay?"

Meiling begins to chain the dandelions together, splitting their stems with a fingernail and pulling them through each other until she's able to make a circle. She places it on Flandre's head, nestling it against her still-damp hair. "Hey, look at that," she says. "You look beautiful."

Flandre turns around and beams.

"Oh, you know, I used to do this for Sakuya-san when she was little," Meiling says, picking some buttercups to tuck into the crown.

"Who's Sakuya-san?"

"The chief maid here." Meiling plucks a few hydrangeas from a nearby bush and weaves them in as accents to the rest of the flowers. "I care about her very much. I don't know if she feels the same about me, though."

"Why?" Flandre turns around to face Meiling, wide-eyed.

"Hey, sit still, or I can't finish this. I raised Sakuya-san when she was a child, but when she grew up, she became kind of distant from me. I don't know if she still likes me." Meiling tries to laugh, but it's still kind of a sore spot.

"I bet she does," Flandre says, clasping her hands in her lap. "I like you. If anybody doesn't like you they're stupid."

"I wouldn't go that far," Meiling says, smiling softly at Flandre's childlike view of things. "But thank you, Flandre. I like you too."

"Can you be my new big sister?"

Meiling doesn't even hesitate. "Yeah! Yeah, I can."

* * *

"I wanna see you be a dragon," Flandre says once the crown is done, tiny blue and yellow blossoms woven together in her soft hair. She's looking up at Meiling with wide, excited eyes, and it makes Meiling smile.

"I did promise. Okay, how about we go flying? Once I transform, grab onto my shoulders, and I'll take you around. Alright? Here I go."

Transforming into her true form is fluid, easy, letting her body grow long and shining into a shimmering dragon, so big she stretches all along the path up to the mansion. It feels so free, after being in her comparatively small youkai body this whole time.

"Whoa," she hears Flandre breathe, standing there in awe.

Meiling gently lowers her head, inviting Flandre to sit on her back. Flandre reaches out to touch Meiling's scales, running her hand along their smoothness before climbing onto Meiling's shoulders. She nestles her little hands in Meiling's hair, clinging to her neck. Meiling breathes in, and takes off, making Flandre yell and pull her hair tighter.

Meiling hadn't realized how much she'd missed this – the feeling of her whole body soaring through the air, wind whipping against her scales and making them chime sweetly. The feeling of Flandre on her back is calming as well, and it's easy to keep the girl balanced.

She glides easily over the garden, circling the highest towers of the mansion. As she flies over Misty Lake, she realizes with a pleasant shock that Flandre is _laughing_ , screaming in delight and joy. She's incredibly different from the lonely little girl Meiling met just a few hours before. That alone is enough to make Meiling feel like she's done what was necessary. For just a little while, she's given this neglected child a chance at happiness and love.

* * *

 

Up in Remilia's personal bedroom, Sakuya is drawing the curtains to block out the morning light when she notices a disturbance. "Ojousama," she says, tentatively, without a hint of emotion. "It would seem that the young mistress has gotten outside. With the help of a certain gatekeeper."

"Oh?" Remilia says, from where she's sitting up in her oversized canopy bed. "Interesting."

"Shall I call Patchouli-sama?"

Remilia looks thoughtful. "No. I do not think that's necessary at this point."

"But, Ojousama–"

"Sakuya." Remilia's tone is as striking as ever, but then she continues more softly. "I know how dangerous my sister is. But I believe I can allow her to have some fun, just for one day."

Meiling swoops down past Remilia's window, and for a second Sakuya catches a flash of Flandre's smiling face pressed into Meiling's dragon shoulders.

"I suppose you're right," Sakuya says, with a small smile. "I will speak to Meiling before I go to bed, if that's alright."

"Yes, I think you would do well in that," Remilia says, her voice already sounding sleepier. "Thank you, Sakuya."

"It's my pleasure, Ojousama."

Outside, Meiling's scales sparkle, chime, catch what little light passes through the clouds. The sound is matched by the jangling of multicolored crystals colliding in the wind, and the sweet laughter of a little girl.


End file.
